Fears of a US attack have eased since Wednesday after Trump said killings in Iran were slowing
\n Tehran
\nIran\u2019s crackdown appears to have broadly quelled protests for now, according to a rights group and residents, as state media reported more arrests on Friday in the shadow of repeated US threats to intervene if the killing continues.
\nFears of a US attack have retreated since Wednesday, when President Donald Trump said he had been told killings in Iran were easing.
\nUS allies, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, conducted intense diplomacy with Washington this week to prevent a US strike, warning of repercussions for the wider region that would ultimately impact the United States, a Gulf official said. The White House said on Thursday that Trump and his team had warned Tehran there would be \u201cgrave consequences\u201d if there was further bloodshed.
\nTrump understands that 800 scheduled executions were halted, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt added, saying the president was keeping \u201call of his options on the table\u201d.
\nThe protests erupted on December 28 over soaring inflation in Iran, whose economy has been crippled by sanctions, before spiralling into one of the biggest challenges yet to the clerical establishment that has run Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
\nAxios reported that the director of Israel\u2019s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, arrived in the United States on Friday for talks on the situation in Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
\nAxios also cited US sources as saying the US military was sending additional defensive and offensive capabilities to the region to be ready in case Trump orders a strike. The US military\u2019s Central Command did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
\nRights group reports heavy security deployments
\nWith information flows from Iran obstructed by an internet blackout, several residents of Tehran said the capital had been quiet since Sunday.
\nThey said drones were flying over the city, where they had seen no sign of protests on Thursday or Friday.
\nIranian-Kurdish rights group Hengaw said there had been no protest gatherings since Sunday, but \u201cthe security environment remains highly restrictive\u201d. \u201cOur independent sources confirm a heavy military and security presence in cities and towns where protests previously took place, as well as in several locations that did not experience major demonstrations,\u201d Norway-based Hengaw said in comments to Reuters.
\nAnother resident in a northern city on the Caspian Sea said the streets there also appeared calm. The residents declined to be identified for their safety.
\nReports of sporadic unrest
\nThere were, however, indications of unrest in some areas. Hengaw reported that a female nurse was killed by direct gunfire from government forces during protests in Karaj, west of Iran. Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.
\nThe state-affiliated Tasnim news outlet reported that rioters set fire to a local education office in Falavarjan County, in central Isfahan province, on Thursday.
\nAn elderly resident of a town in Iran\u2019s northwestern region, home to many Kurdish Iranians and the focus of some of the biggest flare-ups, said sporadic protests had continued, though not as intensely.
\nDescribing violence earlier in the protests, she said: \u201cI have not seen scenes like that before.\u201d
\nState-owned Press TV cited Iran\u2019s police chief as saying calm had been restored across the country.
\nA death toll reported by US-based rights group HRANA has increased little since Wednesday and currently stands at 2,677 people, including 2,478 protesters and 163 people identified as affiliated with the government. Reuters has not been able to independently verify the HRANA figures.
\nAn Iranian official told the news agency earlier this week that about 2,000 people had been killed. The casualty numbers dwarf the death toll from previous bouts of unrest that have been suppressed by the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fears of a US attack have eased since Wednesday after Trump said killings in Iran were slowing Tehran Iran\u2019s crackdown appears to have broadly quelled protests for now, according to a rights group and residents, as state media reported more arrests on Friday in the shadow of repeated US threats to intervene if the killing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-526023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n